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Boxing

20th Dec 2021

Jake Paul won ‘career-high’ prize money for Tyron Woodley KO

Danny Jones

Both Paul and Woodley got a hefty pay packet

Jake Paul‘s prize money for knocking out Tyron Woodley on Saturday night is said to be a career-high for the 24-year-old influencer turned boxer.

According to the MEN, not only did Paul earn a whopping $5m by winning the rematch – with Woodley also said to have taken home a similar amount – but he even offered the MMA fighter a $500,000 bonus if he could knock him out.

In case you hadn’t heard, that isn’t how it went don’t: it was Paul who delivered a knockout blow to the former UFC welterweight champion in the sixth round, meaning he won both bouts and has five victories in five fights as a pro so far.

Despite having lost the two fights, Woodley has now earned more in both than he could have ever hoped to in his own discipline, with the £2m purse from the first bout already having surpassed his highest-ever earning from any UFC fight.

Paul only started boxing properly in January 2020, coming up against fellow influencer AnEsonGib, who became the first of four KO victims in his career so far.

Technically, his first fight was against Deji Olatunji, brother of KSI, when the two faced the Paul brothers in a white-collar event that essentially kicked off this celebrity trend in boxing and spurred Jake and Logan to take the sport more seriously.

While Jake’s momentum in the discipline is certainly much greater – Logan’s only other fight having been against Floyd Mayweather in a one-off exhibition – the advent of influencer boxing as a whole remains a hot topic of discussion.

One of the biggest reasons why many believe his presence in the sport is a good thing for what they considered, fundamentally, an ‘entertainment sport’ is that not only is it bringing new audiences to boxing but allowing for bigger paydays for the like of MMA fighters who have historically been rewarded less generously for their efforts in the ring.

Watch our very own Chris Anderson break it down:

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